Fuld Folds Paper

Carol Vogel Gets the Interview with Kathy Fuld

About Her Drawings Collection to Be Sold at Christie’s

The New York Times brings the issue of Kathy Fuld’s art sales forward and does her a favor in the process. Fuld’s husband is under a cloud for his role in the collapse of Lehman Brothers. But his collector wife gets her props. Vogel points out that “Sixteen works by artists including Barnett Newman, Arshile Gorky, Willem de Kooning and Agnes Martin will go on the block at a total estimate of $15 million to $20 million.”

Speculation in the art business was that the Fulds were the consignors. “’I’ve been selling things for the past few years, but nobody cared until now,’ Mrs. Fuld [left] said reflectively in an interview.”

Coming forward, however, allows Fuld to get her art acumen on the record. Take the example of the Gorky drawing (below, right): “Mrs. Fuld bought it at Christie’s in 1996 for $370,000; the house estimates it will bring $2.2 million to $2.8 million.”

And if you go beyond the art world gossip and look at the art, as Brett Gorvy does, “’You can see the whole of modern art history unfolding,’ he said. ‘It would be impossible to see this in painting.'”

Lindsay Pollock at Bloomberg has some more support for Fuld as a collector:

“She buys at the highest level,” said New York dealer Joan Washburn. “If you have a great drawing, you offer it to her.”

The Wall Street Journal adds some details on the Fulds’s real estate holdings:

Mr. Fuld and his wife still have a sizable art collection and a primary residence in Greenwich, Conn., featuring an indoor squash court. They also own a $21 million Park Avenue co-op, a home in Vermont and another one in Sun Valley, Idaho. In addition, Mr. Fuld in 2004 paid $13.75 million for an oceanfront house in Jupiter Island, Fla. He has since rebuilt the home.

[ . . . ] Today’s art market is dominated by newly wealthy buyers from Europe and Asia who prefer to chase trophy paintings. Ms. Fuld has instead taken her place among a small but close-knit group of American drawings collectors who seek out artists’ more subtle renderings and sketches. A MoMA spokeswoman says Ms. Fuld has donated or helped acquire 42 artworks, including 25 drawings, for the museum’s collection.